Married Iranian Women’s Knowledge, Attitude and Sense of Selfefficacy about Oral Contraceptives: Focus Group Discussion

Background: oral contraceptive pills effectiveness is lower in actual use than in clinical trials. the views of a group of married iranian women were sought as a step toward improving the enhanced use of contraceptive pills. methods: two focus groups of current pill users (n=13) and two focus groups of women not currently taking the pills (n=14) were held. leaders trained facilitators; themes were identified from line-by-line analysis of transcripts. results: the majority of the participants were primary school graduates with a mean age of 34 years. knowledge about mechanisms of action was low; some women wanted more information. both users and non-users recognized positive and negative characteristics of contraceptive pills. for non-users, physical and emotional side- effects were the most important; and anecdotal information from their social network was more important. they tended to trust more traditional methods. for users, their own experience and more reality-based understanding of side-effects mitigated con- cerns about side-effects. they also felt that health clinic staff had a negative attitude toward the pills. a stronger expression of self-efficacy seemed to be associated with more positive attitudes toward oral contraceptive pills. conclusion: although iran has had a government-funded family planning program since 1990, and pills are the single most popular modern contraceptive method, women who take ocps can provide important information that could increase effect- ive health education about their use.